Agenda Preview: April 28 Finance, Operations & Governance and May 1 School Committee Meetings
Superintendent hiring process, Budget prioritization, New professional development day
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May 1 School Committee Meeting
The next school committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 1. Executive session starts at 5pm and the regular meeting is scheduled to start at 5:30pm. The actual start time depends on how long the executive session takes. See the agenda here. You can watch it via zoom or Youtube Live. Spanish translation is available on zoom.
Here’s what's on the agenda:
Executive Session.
Executive session will be to “conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with nonunion personnel and/or to conduct negotiations with nonunion personnel – Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Rachel H. Monárrez.” Which brings us to another item:
Superintendent Process.
There is an item from Mayor Petty to “discuss the process for the appointment of a new Superintendent of Schools and to consider the appointment of a new Superintendent of Schools.” This means the school committee could hire a new superintendent on Thursday. Doesn’t mean they will, but they could.
Report of the Superintendent.
This meeting’s Report of the Superintendent is on “Budget Prioritization 2025-26: Maintenance with an Eye for the Future.” There is just about $3 million available for new initiatives in next year’s budget and here’s a slide showing additions:
Here are other changes with “minimal fiscal impact”:
And here’s a slide showing future planning:
The proposed budget in full is released May 9.
New Professional Development Day (No school for students).
Because of teacher contract obligations the district has proposed adding a professional development day to the calendar for next year. The 2025-2026 calendar is updated to add Monday, January 26 as a “No school day.” The calendar shows professional development days as November 4 in 2025 and January 26 and March 9 in 2026. Other days off (outside of vacation weeks) for next school year include Labor Day on September 1, Indigenous People’s Day on October 13, Veteran’s day on November 11, MLK, Jr. Day on January 19, Good Friday on April 3, and Memorial Day on May 25.
After school and before school budget allocations.
Sue Mailman (at-large) has an item requesting a report with “a breakdown of after school and before school budget allocations by segment (elementary, middle, and high school).”
Other Items.
Up for approval are:
New courses at the secondary level
Two new job descriptions for an Instructional Specialist and Associate Principal for Instructional Leadership
And there are reports back on
STEM and pathways at the secondary level
Positions budgeted for the current school year (3% are not filled)
efforts made to enhance Holocaust and genocide education
April 28 Finance, Operations and Governance (FOG) Standing Committee Meeting
The next Finance, Operations and Governance meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 28 at 4:45 p.m. at the Durkin Administration Building. The full agenda is here.You can watch it via zoom or youtube
Here are the highlights:
Review of Mission and Vision Statement
The district is proposing new core values, as well as new mission, and vision statements (or another way to think about it: “our why”). These are based on surveys done with educators, families, and community.
Chromebooks.
A committee is reviewing the issue of damaged Chromebooks. There are approximately 28,000 Chromebooks for 21,816 students in grades 1–12, but there are reports of inconsistent access, especially for middle school students. The committee determined three key focus areas: Prompt reporting of broken Chromebooks to prevent repair backlogs, efficient and consistent repairs with transparent communication to schools and emphasizing care for Chromebooks by students and staff to support instruction and testing. Read the whole report here.
Nutrition.
There will be a presentation on nutrition services.
Other items
Report on the undercover anti-bullying team
Report on assessing getting to school safely and bus incident protocols
That’s it. Have a good week! If you have feedback you can always get in touch: aislinn.doyle@me.com
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